Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A Lesson Learned!

Steve and I have prided ourselves on nothing bad happening while here in Argentina. We have become very comfortable going down town, riding the trolleys, taxi's etc. Almost everyone we know has had a robbery occur at some time down here. Most of the missionaries have been robbed more than once.
Well today, we headed down town. Feeling very confident and probably a bit over confident.
As we borded the trolley to head home after running our errands, Steve felt in his pocket, his wallet was gone. I looked in my purse and my camera was gone. We had been robbed. How slick they had been, we had felt nothing.
As we evaluated our trip, we had done almost everything wrong. We were an easy target. I had not turned my zippered compartment on my purse towards me, there it was an easy target. Steve had his wallet in his back pocket, not in his front pocket. He was carrying a large sum of money. He should have taken it out before leaving home. As we waited for the trolley, we were in a crowd of people. We should have moved away and waited from behind the crowd. Several times on our excursion we both had little thoughts telling us to do all the right things, we ignored them.
As I thought of what happened, I thought of what can happen spiritually.
We can grow very self-confident, become sloppy about observing the commandments, and not listen to the "still small voice". We can become a victim through our own doing. We need to stay ever vigilent, and realize that Satan is always there, just as the pickpockets were there, waiting for us to let our guard down. Ready to take advantage of our weak moments.
We are sadder but wiser from this experience. We are both glad it was just things that can not be replaced and not our souls. We share this hoping our lesson can bring safety both physically and spiritually to those we love.

3 comments:

MikesDork said...

I am soooo sorry this happened to you guys! I am glad that you are safe!

Tracy said...

What a huge headache and heartache. It is wonderful that you can turn a terrible thing into an analogy of the living the gospel.

Deb-t said...

Oh no! This is awful news to receive! It's just too bad that things like this happen. And to have BOTH of you become victims at the same time is a double whammy. I'm sad to hear of the loss of the camera and the large amount of money.
But thank you also for being able to turn it into a learning experience as well as a life lesson in keeping close to the spirit.
I'm sure from now on, you will be extra careful to take all the necessary precautions....